Main navigation

Framed for Murder : Amanda Knox Redux

Submitted by admin
on Wed, 05/25/2016 - 03:10

A depressed friend hung himself in my flat, and when I called the police to report a suicide, they immediately turned it into a sex game murder a la Amanda Knox. The police inspector in charge tried delete a "suicide text message" from my mobile phone when I showed it to him. Here is a copy of that message from the criminal file:

Inspector Fabien Fontannaz asked to see my mobile phone, so I showed him. He looked at my call history, saw that I spent 5 minutes on the phone to my girlfriend before the police arrived then suddenly appeared unable to control himself, he lept up in the air, shaking with excitement. He could hardly contain himself, he had found something suspicious. He eventually pulled out his own iPhone and took photos of my call log and WhatsApp messenger history. Apparently talking to your partner on the telephone after having discovered the dead body of a close friend is an unusual thing to do.

Apparently talking to your partner on the telephone after having discovered the dead body of a close friend is an unusual thing to do.

In any case, he seemed perfectly capable of manipulating my phone correctly, which lay on the table between us, as we sat opposite one another. I showed him the above text message from Oscar, and suggested it may explain the rope, ligiture marks around his neck, and basically his death. Fontannaz immediately appeared disinterested. He said the message was not important. Then something very strange happened. As we spoke, he put his finger on the message and held it there. Up popped the menu option "DELETE". He kept his finger there and studied the menu; it was in English. The room started to spin as I contemplated the possibility that if he deleted that message, I had no other copy of it. He moved his finger over delete and I hit the screen lock button and pocketed the phone. "I want my lawyer", I said.

Fontannaz immediately appeared disinterested. He said the message was not important. Then something very strange happened. As we spoke, he put his finger on the message and held it there. Up popped the menu option "DELETE". He kept his finger there and studied the menu; it was in English.

They interviewed my girlfriend twice. The first time was prior to the above incident; the next was 08:00 the next morning. On both occasions they made up all kinds of wild stories. You see, my girlfriend was my alibi, so they told her my deceased friend and I were leading a secret double life, a homosexual sadomasochistic violent sexual relationship. Worse still, they had discovered films of huge gay S&M sex orgies taking place in my house. They claimed my friend Oscar was in the videos, and they suspected I was too. They had discovered all sorts of sadomasochistic equipment; hard core, nasty stuff. They tried to get her to say that maybe I slipped out in the middle of the night while she was asleep to attend one of these gay sex orgies, murder my friend, and slip back into bed.

They tried to get her to say that maybe I slipped out in the middle of the night while she was asleep to attend one of these gay sex orgies, murder my friend, and slip back into bed.

My partner insisted that since our 8 month old daughter slept in our bed, and woke up every other hour to be breast fed, their conjecture was utterly ridiculous.

The fact that the police grilled her about my potential absence during the night, firstly in my house for 30 minutes, then the next day for three and a half hours, belies their claim to have been uncertain of the time of death.

The police knew almost immediately that Oscar died during the early hours of the morning. My alibi was inconvenient because they wanted to torture a confession to murder.

After being held for 6 hours in my own house, by two armed uniformed officers of the Valais cantonal police, public prosecutor Frederic Gisler, doctorate in criminal law from Fribourg University arrived, spoke very quickly, insulted me, and said "We must respect the dead". " What about my rights? The rights of the living?" I asked. He didn't reply, just spun on his heel and left.

Public Prosecutor Frederic Gisler, doctorate in criminal law from Fribourg University arrived, spoke very quickly, insulted me, and said"We must respect the dead".
"What about my rights? The rights of the living?" I asked.
He didn't reply, just spun on his heel and left.

I was now officially under arrest, although technically I had been held, interrogated without a lawyer, and denied basic rights.

The above is a copy of my arrest warrant. Below you can see the actual arrest report. In the section "Deroulement", below the highlighted paragraph, it states that there were inconsistencies in my story (although critically they don't say specifically what, a point raised by Maitre Philippe Loretan when he takes over the case) and they could not rationally explain the ligature marks around the neck of the deceased. I would like to refer back to the "suicide text message" at the top of this page which Inspecteur Fabien Fontannaz tried to delete; Oscar states he tried and failed to hang himself. That sounds like a pretty sound explanation for those marks around his neck to me.

Due to these wild stories, they insisted on all kinds of forced medical exams. They were in fact hoping for a positive drug test, rendering my claims of police brutality unreliable. When their exhaustive tests returned merely ibuprofen and caffeine, all record of blood and hair based tests disappeared from my file.

What remained was the public prosecutor's orders for those tests to be carried out. This suggests they destroy evidence of innocence, and cherry pick only those elements which make the accused look guilty. See below, highlighted in red, and note that he refers to a separate instruction to the "medecin legiste", a doctor at the hospital in Sion, who has an official role similar to a coroner. The above tests were to be carried out in hospital, not in public in a room full of people at the police station they way they did. In fact Procureur Frederic Gisler instructed the police to take samples from my penis, as well as instructing the coroner to do that as well. Why do it twice if the intent was not degradation and humiliation?

Initially the police wanted to strip me naked, photograph me and take skin scrapings off the end of my penis, while I was still in my own kitchen, and only meters away from Oscar's corpse. The police had already tried to delete a text message from Oscar where he states he took an overdose of his medication and tried but failed to hang himself, and I was afraid that these Swiss Gestapo wanted my DNA in order to rub it all over his dead body to frame me. I realise that sounds over the top, but believe me you had to be there.

They eventually performed these medical procedures by force in a room full of people at the police station under the threat of waterboarding. They filmed it all and demanded they take extreme close up photos of my genitals to "prove my innocence".

It's a game called sexual humiliation like Abu Ghraib but it's not being used on terrorists, just regular people.

Well, foreign people because the Swiss are such honest folk that foreigners make up 71% of the prison population. That means a foreigner is TEN TIMES more likely to end up in prison than a Swiss person. How is that even possible?

In any case, usually suspects "confess" and after my treatment I imagine most of those foreigners who have confessed were innocent and had the confession tortured out of them.

The duty lawyer, Maitre Johann Fumeaux arrived after I had already been held for 9 hours, and during which time I had been refused the use of a toilet, drinking water, and had received various threats of physical violence.

Maître Johann Fumeaux told me he had run out of business cards. He could have been a street sweeper for all I knew. Of course why bring business cards for the accused when you work for the police? Unnecessary expense.

He explained that he could not do anything but observe my deposition. He couldn't object to anything. I must do everything the police asked, including allow the photos, if I wanted water or to go to the toilet. He even overruled me, and told the police I didn't need an interpreter, despite me repeatedly requesting one, "because he was there to make sure nothing illegal happened". It's laughable.

Chillingly he finished by saying I was to be held incommunicado, and even he would not see me until we went before the judge in 48h. Until that time he said, the police had total control and I could not protest; I simply had no recourse.

Of course I realised that if I didn't comply and sign the police forms and do exactly as they demanded I would have the beating of my life and eventually get waterboarded. 48 hours is a long time to be in the hands of sadistic cruel racists.

After the police got their penis samples -- all six of them -- and their photos, I was allowed to use the toilet. When I returned, the police began bringing me glasses of water.

Maitre Johann Fumeaux sat behind me, on the opposite side of the room and fell asleep during my deposition. He awoke at the end to request changing one word, it felt like a B-Movie, just nudge-nudge, wink wink, absolute theatre.

I thought once I got out of prison and got my usual lawyer Maitre Pierre-Andre Veuthey on the case I'd have some comeuppance, alas he was sick and his underling, Maître Amadine Francey laughed in my face when I said I wanted to file suit for torture and sexual abuse. She continued laughing and said "It's their job to do these things. You cannot complain while you are charged with murder! Hahaha!"

Maître Francey also "forgot" to ask for my computers back in her letter to the procureur, and when I asked her to immediately write to him again to correct this she refussd, saying "He's too powerful, we don't want to upset him, now we must wait a week or two"

I fired my regular lawyer for failing to act and hired the spokesman of Christian Varone, the chief of police in Valais : Maître Philippe Loretan.

He wrote a blistering letter saying they had no proof, not even a suspicion in my file. My computers were returned the next day. The police didn't dare play so fast and loose with the chiefs lawyer.

To see what my lawyer, Maitre Philippe Loretan, had to say about their wild stories and accusations, click here for page one and page two.

I appreciate that not everyone speaks French, so I will provide a rough translation:

My client is completely knocked out by what has happened to him.

I'll let you imagine the shock he could have experienced by finding his friend dead; a shock made all the more violent and impossible to sustain, after he was put in prison and accused of being responsible.

Otherwise, suspicions were at this point so serious that he was interrogated about his sexual orientation and suspected of having a homosexual relationship with his friend.

With that in mind, I have some questions:

1) My client wants his house keys back. Please tell me when you intend to release his house, and why his keys have not been returned

2) What motive did you have to ask such questions, to my client and to the mother of his child, about sadomasochism or homosexuality?
Is there are evidence permitting you to ask those sorts of questions, which constitute an intrusion in the private life of my client and the mother of his child?

3) The police spoke of pornographic material, a video camera, and films made in this attic: was this evidence obtained during a search of the house on the day of the discovery of the body?
And if so, what precisely?
If this kind of material was not found, why were these sorts of questions posed to my client and the mother of his child?

Please answer my questions, in particular number one.

I will detail the financial compensation demanded by my client, as soon as I have the psychological report.

Despite the fact Prosecutor Gisler said it was all a huge mistake, and they would soon drop the charges, on 22 May 2015, he kept my house and it's contents until 18 June, and even sent Inspector Fabien Fontannaz back on 23 June, after the seals were lifted, to remove my computers and drop them off at my lawyer's office 25km away.

Maitre Philippe Loretan refused to file my damages claim the way I wanted it, and so I fired him too.

By that I mean, he wanted to ask for 300 FRS for the night in prison and nothing else except, say, various lawyers' approximate US $10,000 in legal fees.

I had a contract for IT services, which Maitre Philippe Loretan pretended not to understand, a simply unbelievable claim for a lawyer like him to make. He was working with the police and prosecutor to make sure I claimed the minimum.

You see, while my house was "under seal" the police changed the lock on the front door; but inexplicably drilled a great big hole through my exterior laundry door (a hundred year old, antique solid wood door) and fitted a new lock there. There was already a digital lock, which they could have reset. There were three of these external doors, but they only fitted a new lock to that one. Another outbuilding (a carnotzet) with an electronic door lock they didn't even touch; and in there was a complete kitchen. It all felt a bit arbitrary, like they just wanted to show me, they can do whatever they want with me, my house; strip me naked; smash my furniture; drill holes in doors. Then leave me with no recourse.

Maitre Philippe Loretan refused to claim for damage to my door, or even the clothes the police seized off my back, leaving me naked in the cold, so I just couldn't keep his as my lawyer. You see, when I hired him, he promised he could absolutely claim for those specific things; and he would. Now he was saying, "Well, you know...it's not that simple" like a dodgy used car salesman who just sold you a car that broke down before you left the lot.

You see how the system works? Lawyers write fancy letters to each other, and make a killing while their clients get tortured and sold down the river.

I called Amnesty International who said "Valais, Switzerland is a Banana Republic, you'll never get justice there, take our lawyer"

When the police realised I intended to file a torture complaint, suddenly the accused in a case of criminal assault and robbery (27 December, 2014), against whom Patricia was subpoenaed as a state's witness, reported us to child protection. This was an attempt to tie us in legal knots, so we would be too busy trying to get our baby back, to pursue the police. Somehow, the details of our child protection case were leaked to this man (a lawyer) who used the contents therein to report us a total of three times. Child protection said "We don't care if you are state's witness against this man. We must investigate".

Around that time, August 2015, the police summoned Patricia to make a statement regarding another matter. After taking her statement, they detained her in order for Inspector Fabien Fontannaz to come and question her about me. This had happened at least once before, the police wanted to know where I was, even though they had been told to cease and desist, all questions were to come through my lawyer. They also wanted to force her to take back my clothing which they seized upon my arrest. Doubtless to avoid a paper trail proving they stripped me naked.

Fortunately for her, she had our baby with her. If the police arrested Patricia, they would need to call child protective services to take care of our baby, which would result in many questions being asked. So they allowed her to run out of the police station with a screaming baby.

So after going through three lawyers who seemed incapable of defending me I called Amnesty International who said "Valais, Switzerland is a Banana Republic, you'll never get justice there, take our lawyer". And so I did and I have filed suit on nine (9) counts of torture.

That was November 2015 and the Swiss only replied in March 2016 to say "We are dropping the murder charges due to your claim for loss of earnings, in order to minimise it. However we are summoning you to appear before us, we have some questions we would like to ask you about your complaint"

So, after I claimed of human rights abuse, they casually summon me to appear before the very people who tortured me, to explain my torture allegations. They are seriously insane.

My lawyer wrote back at the end of March 2016 to say he wanted them to pose their questions in writing. Two months later, I had heard nothing further, which would tend to suggest they had called me in for questioning, without actually having prepared any questions!

Call me paranoid if you will, but after being tortured the first time, I can only surmise that a second round of torture was on the cards, culminating in me retracting my complaint or them staging an incident where I "grab a policeman's gun" and they shoot me dead. Case closed.

Three months later, the questions came back : they wanted a copy of my tax return, cash flow statements, and for me to waive more rights, this time, medical secrecy so they could "interrogate" my doctors.

Summoning me back from Sydney, Australia without asking those questions in advance, could mean I return without them! So, those questions were just window dressing. They wanted me alone in an interrogation room again.

Finally in September, Prosecutor Frederic Gisler made his ruling: he rejected 99% of my claim. The only part he paid in full were the lawyers from Valais.

The other lawyers from Vaud and Geneva, he declined to pay for, citing "the simplicity of the case" he claimed their fees were "unjustified".

Under Swiss law, because I filed a complaint under article 3 of Swiss Federal Law regarding human rights and torture, the state is absolutely obliged to cover all legal fees in association with that, even if my complaint eventually fails. THEY SIMPLY DECIDE NOT TO.

How can it be that nobody told me? Now I enquire, I find out that my story is a common thing. Most people crack under the pressure, confess and their life is ruined. It's notched up as another foreign criminal and nobody mentions torture, only the fact that "the foreign suspect confessed".

In my case I fought for 6 months, and because I was innocent... The Swiss police threw child protection at us to try and take our child away. So even if you prove you're innocence there is a huge sting in the tail.

I want the whole world to know : if you go to Switzerland, you risk your life and that of your family.

The Swiss think foreigners are not worthy of human dignity or human rights. My advice is : stay away.